(I know there could be some mistakes in this review. I’m trying to improve my English, thanks)
The main premise of War of the Maps is simply fascinating: an artificial world, a Dyson sphere and the human beings inhabit its surface, although for them the origin of the giant planet, its creation by supposed deities and their subsequent departure leaving them abandoned to their fate a long time ago, is ceasing to be history to increasingly becoming a myth. Thus, they have some technology, some ancient devices, that they continue to use it as much as possible, being aware that this knowledge does not belong to them. As a result it is a society equivalent to our 19th or early 20th centuries. In other words, a sort of steampunk society, but without “steam”.
In a Paul McAuley’s story everything is very accurate, precise: well thought-out arguments, which far from seeking the spectacularity of another type of science fiction offer to the reader a great amount of details but at the same time without neglecting to offer us a share of the sense of wonder. At some point of the book, during a journey by the main protagonist, it made me think of Jack Vance’s novels. I commented this to the author via Twitter, who kindly replied that it was not the case, that he admires Jack Vance’s novels (especially he had great regard for The Dying Earth stories), but that he had not been inspired by this work, at least consciously. As I moved further into the novel I understood my mistake in making the comparison: Paul McAuley's works actually have an individuality of their own, making them hardly comparable to other science fiction works.
Of course, in War of the Maps you will find some of the the preferred themes by the author: the characters have little control of the situation but they try to survive and achieve their purposes, unleashed biology (The title of the novel partly refers to this), incomprehensible technologies and capricious entities insensitive to human life: in this case the so-called godlings, that maybe are AIs abandoned by the creators, but who knows.
As a flaws or aspects that I do not liked, The stubbornness of the main character is a bit tiresome, although I must point out that all the characters are well depicted. On the other hand, a subject that complicates the plot is that some of them have a gift, a kind of power -for example, the gift of the main character is to nullify other powers-; This topic is interesting and has some importance in the story but it seems somewhat arbitrary and for me it is not entirely well justified.
As usual I will not reveal anything about the plot, you can read the synopsis of the book. Mr. McAuley develops his adventure in his “quiet” way, taking his time to narrate the adventures of the protagonist - who by age could well be him himself -, which in turn makes the reading a bit cold, including in the action or violence scenes, but in return the style is more realistic. Although the book is very speculative in some parts, it also has an hard science fiction component. A curiosity about the main character. We know his name, although at the same time throughout the novel it is seldom used to refer to him. Instead, we know him as the lucidor, a sort of policeman at the service of ethics rather than of the laws or the state powers.
It is only my guess, but I think that if this book have success, this great planet imagined by the author could hold a lot more of adventures, more discoveries or intrigues in its possible sequels. I really like this author and I've read many of his books since Fairyland totally captivated me, but I think that this quiet and rational style, likewise makes him an author not for everyone. But as I said in a previous review, I consider that Paul McAuley is one of the best contemporary authors of science fiction.
